West Restaurant + Bar – Mourad Lahlou: New Moroccan Dinner

Mourad: New Moroccan Dinner at West Restaurant + Bar

A recap of Chef Mourad Lahlou’s New Moroccan dinner at West Restaurant + Bar.

Chef Jeremy Charles from Raymonds restaurant in St-John’s, Newfoundland, Chef Marc Lepine from Atelier in Ottawa, and Chef Mourad Lalouh from Aziza in San Francisco… who would you pick? Decisions, decisions! All three chefs are from award winning “best of” restaurants and each one was invited to West Restaurant’s Autumn Guest Chef Series in Vancouver, BC. All three were exciting choices, but I was looking forward to trying Chef Lepine’s menu just because I was so impressed by what he did at Gold Medal Plates 2012 – see my recap here. However I was out of town and ended up going with Chef Mourad Lalouh’s dinner. It was by no means a “default choice” as I’ve been following along Aziza’s journey for the last year.

Mourad Lalouh’s is the chef and owner of 1 Michelin Star Aziza, which is the only Moroccan restaurant in North America to receive a Michelin Star. His Pastry Chef Melissa Chou was nominated for Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year in 2012 by the James Beard Award Foundation, so I had Aziza on my bucket list for my next trip to San Francisco – whenever that may be. Nonetheless I was looking forward to this dinner, so much that I ended Follow Me Foodie to Montreal (Round 2) a few days early just to make it back in time for Mourad’s: New Moroccan menu.

Together with the team at West Restaurant led by Executive Chef Quang Dang, Chef Lahlou prepared a 7 course New Moroccan menu with cocktail pairings created by West Restaurant’s bar manager David Wolowidnyk aka David W. While I prefer wine with dinner and cocktails before and after, I can appreciate a good cocktail pairing especially when it’s in the hands of David W. (one of Vancouver’s best). Upon request they did accommodate those who preferred wine pairings as well. Following the dinner everyone also received his new cook book ‘Mourad: New Moroccan’ from Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks.

I can’t even imagine what goes on behind the scenes. Keeping in mind that Chef Lahlou was cooking with local ingredients from Vancouver and not San Francisco, a new kitchen staff who may have no experience in Moroccan cuisine, and a new cooking environment altogether, it is quite admirable how everything came together.

I can’t say I know much about Moroccan food, so I’m writing this at a disadvantage of never really having tried the “real” thing. I did explore Moroccan food and restaurants in Marseilles, France, which has a significant Moroccan population, but that just scratched the surface. And being in Vancouver the closest thing to authentic Moroccan cuisine is African cuisine, which isn’t even specific to Morocco. Some may even associate Moroccan food with Middle Eastern cuisine just because there are similar ingredients. I really wish I had a benchmark for the traditional before moving towards the modern though because I couldn’t make the connections between the old and the new.

I know this photo doesn’t look anything like traditional Moroccan cuisine, and it actually wasn’t really. Although I knew Lahlou was all about “New Moroccan” cuisine I was still expecting lots of spices, stews and strong flavours, but what I found was quite the opposite. He uses spices with intention and control and believes in less is more. The spices and flavours were more mild and downplayed than one would assume for Moroccan cuisine, and I found them more aggressive in the cocktails, although still well matched.

The menu didn’t make me fall in love with Moroccan cuisine, but it did make me extremely curious about it. It was distinctly “New Moroccan” cuisine, so I wouldn’t even look at it from a traditional angle. I had to read his cook book to understand his cooking style or I really had no idea where I was going with this post.

Lahlou is known for his modern interpretations of Moroccan cuisine and part of the reason is because it’s really challenging to make any ethnic cuisine “authentic” when you’re using local ingredients in North America, or in his case specifically California. For this dinner the ingredients were sourced from BC so that changes everything once again. Taking into consideration all the challenges with a Guest Chef dinner like this, I would say this dinner gave me just a taste of what Lahlou does at Aziza.

The cook book is intense (almost 400 pages intense) and he’s really specific with his ingredients and techniques. Much of his cooking is derived from childhood memories in Morocco and what he cooks now is an evolution of what he remembers. He notes how most people think of cumin and coriander as dominant spices in Moroccan cuisine, but he considers them as “spices of the world” and focuses more on the application of them. And while the plates and recipes might look complex, it was actually quite straight forward in flavours. Again, I’m not sure if all the courses worked out the way he wanted, but the food I tried seemed to match his cooking philosophy.

This was a one off event, but I couldn’t resist from commenting on the food because it was rather new to me. However most, if not all of the cocktails are available upon request at West (or Dave can make a similar version). The event itself was well done. It was organized with table seatings and everything came out in a timely manner. I can’t speak for the other Guest Chef dinners since this was my first time attending one, but I’m a fan of the concept and I’m looking forward to more. Having the opportunity to try the work of chefs from other cities in my hometown is a unique experience and I would recommend it especially if it’s a chef you’ve been following.

The dinner was $190 (includes seven courses, canapes and eight cocktail pairings, tax, gratuity + signed copy of Mourad: New Moroccan). The cook book made for a pricer event and I think it would be nice to have it as an option since it may prevent some couples from going and receiving two copies of the same book. This was really the equivalent of a concert for a foodie, but instead of music to the ears it’s food for the soul.

We were in Marrakech in Sept. and took some cooking classes. It was great, the chef buys his spices almost daily at the local spice market. The spice market is so fragrant and vibrant, it’s intoxicating. We mostly worked with making a tajine and couscous…… so simple, but so good! Having the right ingredients certainly makes a difference. We are going back next year. It was a wonderful place with great people, food, culture, etc.

Am surprised by the amount of cocktails; often chefs complain that the high alcoholic cocktails destroy your ability to taste food properly…did you find that your taste buds were numbed ?
Don’t think that beef cheeks are Moroccan cuisine(not a lot of cattle there). Nice looking food but I want larger portions.

The menu I had was the Chef’s Tasting Menu which I enjoyed, but I was hoping to try more of his vegetarian items. Chef Foshee’s cooking style is very natural, delicate and light. The presentation was near flawless and he is certainly an artist as much as he is a chef.